Merry Christmas, Loco
by Flicker's Owner
Summary: Love -or give a gift to- your enemy. Because it will make them confused…it will also bring benefit. Rex and Caesar bro fluff ficlet.


**Set after "Phantom of the Soap Opera".**

**Beware of my crappy grammar. I also wasn't sure the real price in US.**

**Disclaimer: Most characters are owned by Man of Action, agent 88 belonged to Rabbit Miza. **

**,,,**

**Merry Christmas, Loco**

Love (or give a gift to) your enemy. Because it will make them confused…it will also bring benefit. Rex and Caesar bro fluff ficlet.

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**Mall**

Only after he was away from the new corrupted Providence, Rex realized that Christmas shopping was stressful. He wasn't sure what was stressing him the most: the crowds, the long queue, the constant noisy bratty children yelling and begging for toys, or the fake fat Santa Clauses who kept hohoho-ing. However, he managed to go through the hassle to buy gifts for his new family in the Dam Base. Words couldn't describe his real purpose of buying those gifts, but there's something unexplainable wonderful thing about Christmas joy in the middle of their struggle.

Rex had finished his list of gifts, Bobo, Agent Six, Dr. Holiday, and White Knight (who was recently had been added in his list). Noah was included also, as an apology for the mess he made in his television station job.

But suddenly, Rex didn't understand why the hardware store was luring him. Either the Hispanic teenager wanted to do window shopping or he was pushed by the crowd who were all heading to that direction.

When he went to the tools section, he realized the hardware store reminded him of someone: a certain man with wild thick hair, weird behavior, and unhealthy obsession with science.

"Buying the last gift for the lunatic scientist who was working on the wrong side? I think I'm getting crazy… Never thought craziness could be contagious. There's no way I'm going to do that!"

His mind kept denying, but his body wouldn't obey. His feet kept walking to that aisle of various mechanic tools. His eyes were scanning all of the displayed items.

"What am I doing?" Rex wondered, lightly patting his right pocket where the rest of the change was kept. He only had three dollars left. "I don't have enough money!"

As if it had answered his dilemma, Rex spotted a cheap screwdriver was placed on the right shelf. It was the medium screwdriver for standard size screws. The price was about two dollars and eighty cent. The handle was made from yellow-colored rubber.

"He doesn't need gifts. He probably owns this already." Rex looked at other tools. There were some better and more expensive screwdrivers, packed with various shapes and sizes. There were also electric screwdrivers, rotated with motors. It probably priced more than fifty dollars.

Suddenly Rex felt awkwardly belittle of himself. He quickly dismissed this unfamiliar feeling.

"...he got a steady job and income." He muttered those words while pondering his decision. Now, the annoying tacky color of the screwdriver was stuck on his mind.

Few minutes later, Rex had decided.

"I'm sooo….hating myself for this." He groaned as he went to the cashier. Once again, Rex was stuck in the long queue just to get this lunatic a gift, a cheap gift that he probably wouldn't need.

But in the end, Rex didn't care.

,,,

**Providence Headquarters**

Caesar didn't notice that night was the eve of Christmas until he looked at his calendar on his computer screen. At first, he wanted to check his schedule and weather. The digital clock stated it was eleven at night and then his eyes accidentally saw the date. The '12/24' number was familiar. When it dawned to him, Caesar remained unfazed. He didn't consider today's holiday was important thing ever since he was busy with this new job. To add up, his parents were gone and Rex was separated from him.

The Hispanic man thought he will spend the rest of the night sitting warmly inside his comfort zone, the pod laboratory, until unexpectedly he heard a loud crash from his door. A foreign object was thrown to the ship.

CRASH!

"_¡Dios mío!_" Caesar startled. He quickly ran to inspect. He saw the small window of his pod's sliding entrance door had been crashed. "Argh! I just fixed that!"

Indeed Caesar had repaired his pod lab after the Alpha incident. He simply hated it when there's any damage. He then took the intruding object, angrily ripping off the newspaper wrap and found...

…A screwdriver.

Caesar discovered that the item was attached with small note that was ripped sloppily. He read the following words:

"_No, I don't have enough money to buy the wrappings or decent card. _

_You probably already have it or have something better. But I don't care._

_Just shut up and take your gift."_

The Hispanic man was quickly coming out from his pod lab, ignoring the cold environment and searched for the source. His lab was parked on the Providence's garage. He heard a sound of propelled jet, departed from the headquarters exit. He also saw a silhouette that was flying off undetected by Providence security and it was suspiciously resembled a certain teenager that he knew too well. Feeling confused, Caesar read the message again. Apparently, he missed the last line. There were no signature, but the last word had officially stated the sender.

_"P.S. Merry Christmas, Loco."_

"_Loco_…" Caesar sighed, "Right…"

Caesar rubbed the back of his head. The Hispanic man was feeling unsure what to do. He knew that his younger brother had limited money but he stubbornly bought him a gift. He then returned to his pod lab, unconsciously kept flipping his new screwdriver. He came back to his desk and returned to his work. But when he saw his hand kept twisting the screwdriver, an idea struck him. He left his assignment and did his own project for a while.

The note stated a true fact: Caesar already had screwdrivers, many shapes and sizes. But he spent the rest of the night to create his new idea creation, using the cheap tacky yellow colored screwdriver.

,,,

**Dam Base**

The next morning Dr. Holiday crossed her arms, feeling annoyed by Rex's behavior. Her charge was sitting casually on the seat and didn't feel guilty for spending all of his pocket money.

"You only have 20 cent left?" Dr. Holiday had expected that teenagers could be extravagant. But she had nearly lost her patience when Rex returned to their dam base.

"I got hungry and bought a snack, okay?...and I bought this…" Rex shuffled his pocket and took out a gift that was wrapped with newspaper.

"Oh Rex, you shouldn't have..." Rebecca instantly forgotten her anger and accepted the gift.

Rex rubbed the back of his head, "Sorry for not wrapping it properly. _Feliz Navidad._"

"It's okay, Rex. I love it." She said that even though she hadn't opened the gift. She was appreciating Rex's effort more than the gift itself.

All of a sudden, Rex and Dr. Holiday heard the alarm from the other side of the building. Dr. Holiday and Rex must postpone their Christmas moment to inspect the problem. They went to the source, the abandoned basketball court. They saw the rest of their members: Six, Bobo and White Knight were already there inspecting the crashing glass that scattered on the floor.

"Someone throws this inside." Six told them and showed the wrapped item, "This thing breaks the window glasses."

When Rex looked up, he saw a ship flew away that vaguely familiar. The teenager looked at Six, spotted that foreign object on his hands, and then he grinned widely. His expression was making all adults and Bobo confused. Without Six's permission, Rex snatched the paper wrapped object it from the man's hand.

"Heh... I'll bet he was angry because I crashed his window..."

"Who?"

Rex didn't answer. Instead, he ripped the wrapping which was made from disposable paper work. His gift was a cylinder object. It was glowing with fluorescent blue lights. Typical Caesar, he always gave them an unidentified object. Unless that thing could fly, Rex would call it a U.F.O. Thankfully the teenager found a note beside it.

He read it loud, "It's a portable solar recharged electric generator. This thing won't last long, but good enough for emergencies."

"Did Caesar give you that?" White Knight had asked though the answer to his question was obvious. All of them only knew one person who was crazy enough to create that kind of generator.

Six gave a disapproval look, "Rex, we don't know if that thing could be used as Providence tracking device or it could be a bomb or…"

"This is brilliant!" Dr. Holiday suddenly yelled, quickly dismissing Six's warning, "Give me that! We need all energy we can get."

Rex didn't protest when the woman snatched his Christmas gift from his hands. At least the doctor was happy and she knew what to do with it. For the past few weeks, she's been under a lot of stress maintaining the technical items and the E.V.O. garden on their dam base, especially after Alpha consumed all the inhabitants. This portable generator was some kind of salvation for her.

"Dr. Holiday…" Six warned again.

"Oh shush Six, we're out of supplies! I'll check it later if there's something suspicious." She waved her hand and carelessly went to her lab to inspect the object. She didn't even bother to ask Rex how to operate the portable generator.

Six's mouth puckered when he was ignored by the woman. To add it worse, Bobo teased him, "What can I say, chief? Dames love shiny things."

The green clad agent ignored the talking simian and walk to Dr. Holiday's direction. White Knight shook his head tiredly and left with Bobo. Rex was the only one left in the room. He mentally noted himself to give Six, White and Bobo the gifts which he bought yesterday. Now, Rex was reading the rest of the note. There's a detailed instruction manual, but only the last sentence made Rex grin wider.

"P.S. I made this using that screwdriver. _Feliz Navidad, Lo_co."

"_Loco_, indeed." He chuckled.

,,,

**Providence Headquarters**

The agents backed away when one of them, a minor agent who had numbers for her name, had accidentally destroyed Caesar's new screwdriver.

"Uhm... Sorry, Dr. Salazar." Agent 88 didn't know how to react when she saw Caesar. The scientist was glaring at her.

To be fair, all of the agents rarely saw the scientist angered. If he did, it usually happened when someone carelessly scratch or destroy one of his inventions. He shouldn't be upset that much about some cheap screwdriver that agent 88 had accidentally stepped on.

"I...I'll buy a new screwdriver in exchange the broken one." Agent 88 bowed in apology. She quickly picked up the broken screwdriver.

"No, don't replace it."

"But, it's fine, really. I could buy a better screwdriver."

"I don't want a new one." Caesar sternly said that. He extended one of his hands, "Just give it back."

"I'm…really sorry." Agent 88 surrendered the pieces of the screwdriver. The rubber handler was detached from the metal part that was divided into two parts.

As soon as Caesar had the parts, he left the Grunts without saying any word.

Caesar rushed to his pod lab and quickly searched his drawer for his own special formulated adhesive. When he found the tube, he applied it to the screwdriver patiently. Few minutes later, he was satisfied that it was attached properly. Caesar smiled and then returned to his work while holding the screwdriver.

He knew that he probably would spend this year's Christmas alone. But the sound of tinkering machine had been enough for him. Caesar didn't know how long this cheap screwdriver last but he would intent to keep it as long as possible.

Maybe that's the point of the whole gifting tradition. The gifts had no value, it probably the sender that made it worth so much.

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**Merry Christmas to all who celebrates and to all who read this. **


End file.
